Question

Compared to most other substances, a great deal of heat is needed to raise the temperature of by a given amount. What trait of water allows this to take place?

Answer 1

Well, for a start, water is extraordinarily dense.........

Explanation:

We know that the density of water under standard conditions is `rho=1.0*g*mL^-1`; and thus for a given volume, there is a LARGE number of `H-O` bonds to heat.....

Why should water be so dense? Well, we can probably attribute this to hydrogen bonding, inasmuch there is a great deal of intermolecular interaction between the polar `stackrel(delta+)H-stackrel(delta-)O` bonds...

`H-O-stackrel(delta+)Hcdotsstackrel(delta-)OH_2cdotsstackrel(delta-)O`

Molecules of comparable size, are not so dense, and are in fact room temperature gases, consider `NH_3`, and `H_2S`.